Available Equip Slots

The following slots are available on the Player character's paper doll:

Head

Neck

Shoulder

Back

Chest

Hands

Wrists

Legs

Waist

Feet

Shirt

Tabard

2x Finger

2x Trinket

Main Hand

Off Hand

Ranged/Relic

Ammunition

Equip Slot Limitations

The equip slots have various limitations:

Armor Limitations

Items intended for the Head, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, Wrists, Legs, Waist and Feet slots are considered Armor. You can equip items from your inventory in these slots if your class is allowed to wear that kind of armor:

The Neck, Back, Finger and Trinket slots are not considered armor and aren't limited to certain classes because of their material. However, Back items are always considered to be made of Cloth by the Auction House, which considers Neck, Finger and Trinket items to be Miscellaneous.

Weapon Limitations

The Main Hand, Off Hand, Ranged Weapon and Ammunition slots are collectively considered the weapon slots, although the Off Hand slot may be used for weapons, shields, or other miscellaneous items.

There are several types of weapons in World of Warcraft, and each one has a weapon skill associated with it. You can only equip a weapon if you have the weapon skill for its weapon type. Some weapon skills your class will start with; others can be learned from class trainers or weapon trainers (possibly requiring you to reach a minimum level before you can learn them); some classes may not be able to learn some weapon skills at all. See Per Class Proficiencies for more information.

Some one-handed weapons' tooltips will say "Main Hand," meaning that you won't be able to equip them in your Off Hand slot, only the Main Hand one. Some weapons (and other miscellaneous items) will actually say "Off Hand," meaning they can't be equipped in the Main Hand slot (although this is rare). Most often, one-handed weapons will allow you to equip them in either the Main Hand or Off Hand slot as you wish, although you must have the Dual Wield skill (available only to hunters, rogues, enhancement shamans, and warriors) to equip two weapons at once.

Two-handed weapons such as staves, polearms, two-handed maces and two-handed swords can be equipped (given the appropriate weapon skill) in the Main Hand slot. If you do this, any items you had in either your Main Hand or Off Hand slot will be moved to your bags, because you cannot equip a two-handed weapon and an off-hand item.

You may equip a ranged weapon in the Ranged slot if you have the necessary weapon skill -- hunters, rogues, and warriors can learn to use bows and guns, while mages, priests and warlocks start out with the ability to use wands. If you equip a bow or gun, you must also equip a type of ammunition in the Ammunition slot next to the Ranged Weapon slot, or you will be unable to shoot. Wands do not require ammunition. Note that druids, paladins and shamans can never learn to use ranged weapons; in Patch 1.10 these classes will have a Relic slot instead.

Shield Limitations

If you have the shield proficiency, you can equip a shield in the Off Hand slot. Equipping a shield is just like equipping any other Off Hand item -- if you equip one, you cannot have a two-handed weapon equipped at the same time, and you will be reminded of this if you attempt to equip a shield when you have a two-handed weapon already equipped.

Class Limitations

Over and above any other limitations, some items are explicitly limited to certain classes. For example, items of each class's Tier 0.5 armor set and higher cannot be equipped by anyone not of the class for which the item is intended. There are a few other class-limited items as well.

Skill Limitations

Some items require one of your trade skills to be greater than or equal to a certain level in order to equip an item. The most common examples of this are the various trinkets produced by Engineering, which almost always require some level of Engineering to equip.

Rank Limitations

The PvPHonor System has a number of items that can be purchased if you reach a certain Rank. Once purchased, you may equip these items if your maximum rank matches or exceeds the rank requirement on the item, even if your rank decays and your current rank is lower than the requirement.

Reputation Limitations

Certain items require you to have a minimum Reputation with one of the world's many factions in order for you to equip them.

Combat

If you are in combat, you cannot equip or unequip armor. Weapons, however, can be equipped or unequipped, causing a global cooldown.

Cooldowns

Some equippable items with active effects, especially trinkets, cannot be used immediately after you equip them -- instead, there will be a cooldown (typically 30 seconds) before they can be activated.